Evan Bookbinder
EF2
It's been a while since I treated myself to a fun gift, and after a lot of research decided to buy the new Garmin Nuvi 660. Glad I did!
The unit is an all-in-one dash mounted GPS unit that does everything under the sun.
The well designed touch screen certainly had the driver in mind as does the vibrant display which auto switches to a dark background at night to eliminate glare and human focusing problems. I was amazed at the detail of the road network and how up to date the road database is. New downloads can be ingested via USB when available.
What impresses me most is the clearity of the voices in the unit. Older models that I've seen give driving directions with relative terms such as "turn right in 300 feet". This unit actually pronounces the street name, leaving no doubt as to the directions -- e.g. "in 300 feet, turn right onto Williamsburg Street".
Other great features...
It has a slot for expandable SD card for storing pictures, MP3s and audio books. At the touch of a button, the unit can play MP3s and audio books with full touch controls to stop, pause, fast forward, etc... Even more impressive is there's an FM transceiver built into the cig adapter that allows you to play your music/audio through your car's stereo system. But the best part of the FM transceiver is that in major cities (such as here in KC), it receives traffic reports that are broadcast through a predetermined signal. I haven't had the luxury of this happening yet, but if the system detects an accident, construction, congestion, etc...on your route, it will tell you of the severity and calculate an alternate route for you!!
I guess the only thing missing from the unit is the ability to ingest the lat/lon data into your laptop for other software uses (StormLab, etc..), but that's OK as I have another USB device for that purpose.
As recommended by others on here, pricegrabber.com was the way to go for locating an outlet with an unbeatable price, reputation and customer service. I ended up using FuturePC.com who even called me the day after Christmas to confirm that my order was legit and let me know it would be shipped that day with tracking info via email. They were spot on.
Needless to say, this unit is highly recommended.
Evan
The unit is an all-in-one dash mounted GPS unit that does everything under the sun.
The well designed touch screen certainly had the driver in mind as does the vibrant display which auto switches to a dark background at night to eliminate glare and human focusing problems. I was amazed at the detail of the road network and how up to date the road database is. New downloads can be ingested via USB when available.
What impresses me most is the clearity of the voices in the unit. Older models that I've seen give driving directions with relative terms such as "turn right in 300 feet". This unit actually pronounces the street name, leaving no doubt as to the directions -- e.g. "in 300 feet, turn right onto Williamsburg Street".
Other great features...
It has a slot for expandable SD card for storing pictures, MP3s and audio books. At the touch of a button, the unit can play MP3s and audio books with full touch controls to stop, pause, fast forward, etc... Even more impressive is there's an FM transceiver built into the cig adapter that allows you to play your music/audio through your car's stereo system. But the best part of the FM transceiver is that in major cities (such as here in KC), it receives traffic reports that are broadcast through a predetermined signal. I haven't had the luxury of this happening yet, but if the system detects an accident, construction, congestion, etc...on your route, it will tell you of the severity and calculate an alternate route for you!!
I guess the only thing missing from the unit is the ability to ingest the lat/lon data into your laptop for other software uses (StormLab, etc..), but that's OK as I have another USB device for that purpose.
As recommended by others on here, pricegrabber.com was the way to go for locating an outlet with an unbeatable price, reputation and customer service. I ended up using FuturePC.com who even called me the day after Christmas to confirm that my order was legit and let me know it would be shipped that day with tracking info via email. They were spot on.
Needless to say, this unit is highly recommended.
Evan
